Superintendent’s Annual Report for 2019-20 Shows How Students, Educators, and Schools Persisted through Pandemic Challenges

by MDE Communications Team

The newly released Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) 2019-20 Superintendent’s Annual Report tells the story how students, educators and schools persisted in their pursuit of higher academic achievement while dealing with the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic. View the report online at mdek12.org/superintendent2020.

Report highlights:

• Facts and figures about student enrollment and the educator workforce
• 2019-20 achievements
• Immediate response to school building closures
• Long-term response to pandemic, including Mississippi Connects digital learning initiative

No new achievement data were produced for the 2019-20 school year because state and national assessments were not administered. However, Mississippi’s record of significant, sustained improvement through the end of the previous year has been historic:

• 4th graders had achieved the No. 1 spot in the nation for gains on NAEP in reading and math, with 4th graders scoring higher than the nation’s public-school average in math and tying the nation in reading.
• 8th graders had outpaced the nation for growth in math and held steady in reading; nationally, scores for most NAEP subjects dropped or remained flat.
• Black, white and Hispanic students from low-income homes in Mississippi had achieved higher scores than their counterparts nationally in all four NAEP subjects.
• 85.6% of students met the most challenging standard ever required under the Literacy-Based Promotion Act.
• Students in every grade had made significant, annual gains on statewide English Language Arts and mathematics assessments. When the tests were first administered in 2016, one-third of students scored on or above grade level in English Language Arts and Math. In 2019, closer to half reached those levels.
• The graduation rate hit an all-time high of 85%, on par with the national average.

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